


Illusions of the Mind

by a2h1ey



Series: Cap-Ironman Bingo (2020 Round 1) Fills [7]
Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Ultimates, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Comic Book Science, Comic Book Violence, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Less Angst and more Action, M/M, No one actually dies.... technically - Freeform, Protective Steve, Steve Rogers Feels, Temporary Character Death, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23911879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a2h1ey/pseuds/a2h1ey
Summary: Over the coms, Tony and Thor still fought on, though Steve knew they weren’t going to last much longer; he could tell that Thor was wounded, and Tony was only a baseline human, not made to stand against this constant assault. When they both reached their limits… Steve refused to think about that, heart constricting even imagining the outcome.He knew they had lost.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Cap-Ironman Bingo (2020 Round 1) Fills [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623757
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35
Collections: Captain America/Iron Man Bingo





	Illusions of the Mind

**Author's Note:**

> Full Quote: "All problems are illusions of the mind." - Eckhart Tolle
> 
> Okay so LOTS of notes at the end, if you want to read my ramblings/had some questions about this.
> 
> For the Cap/Iron Bingo (Round 1, 2020) square S3: A pic of Cap fighting zombies. My updated Bingo Card can be found [here.](https://i.imgur.com/ZTOhrBB.png)
> 
> Honestly I was never even going to attempt this square, but then I got to thinking about the Ults comics and their (very violent) fight scenes, and well... here we are. (That being said, this is set in a nebulous universe that is kind of a fusion of MCU, Ults, and 616, so don't think too hard about it.)
> 
> Anyways, notes at the bottom, and as always the unedited version can be found on my tumblr (@saraceaser).
> 
> Be warned: This does get a bit dark and a bit violent, as is the norm when it comes to fighting zombies.

Steve grunted, pushing back with all the strength he could muster, knocking down the wave of zombies; he knew it wouldn’t last long, already they were struggling to get back up. Wheeling back, he took a moment to grab two of the grenades he had on hand and tossed them at the still downed horde before taking off; a vindictive glee glinted through the tight focus he held at the sound of the explosion behind him, but he didn’t turn around to check how much damage he had done.

Shield strapped to one arm and a gun in hand of the other, he ran back to the bar where the team had set up a temporary base, taking out straggling zombies along the way. Overhead he saw Falcon and Iron Man fly by to support the others in the team who were struggling against the waves of zombies they were tasked to fight. Over the com, he could hear the harsh breathing and cursing of the others, the roar of the Hulk and Thor’s crackling thunder; he knew it was only a matter of time before-

“ _Shit!_ Falcon is down, Falcon is down, and being swarmed!” Clint’s yell was clearly heard over the explosions and sounds of heavy fighting. Steve felt his heart stop when Clint breathed out a soft and guilty curse. “He’s not getting back up… I think he’s gone, Cap.”

Steve paused, squeezing his eyes shut. First Wanda and Hank, then Natasha, Vision, Rhodes, Janet, Bucky, Carol, and _now-_ Steve silently cursed, gritting his teeth; now wasn’t the time to think about it, they _all_ wouldn’t last if they kept going like this. Distantly he wondered how the only real good thing he had gotten from being in a war besides his ability to strategize under fire was his ability to compartmentalize. He could think about losses later; now he had to make sure his remaining men made it through this alive.

“Fall back! Head back to base!” He commanded in what Tony and a few of the others had affectionately termed as his ‘Captain America Voice’. Confirmations were grunted into the coms, and Steve focused on getting back to the building; he wanted to get there first to clear out any of the undead that may be hanging around there before the wounded and exhausted others did.

He had turned the corner and was sprinting towards the bar at the other end of the decimated street when instincts had him turn and raise his shield, grunting when a large force rammed against him. 

“ _Steve!_ ” The weight immediately left, and he felt his heart lift a bit at the familiar whine of the repulsors. Looking up, he watched as Tony came flying down, blasting the Berserker back. It gave Steve the opportunity to throw his shield with all the force he could muster at the weak spot on its neck, easily decapitating it, shooting a few other regular zombies through the head that had gotten too close in the process.

Catching the shield on instinct, he felt his lips tilt up as he watched Tony swoop back around, aiming a few repulsor blasts at zombies that still staggered down the street. He waited, walking forwards when the Iron Man armor slowed to a stop, hovering in front of him; he couldn’t stop the grin blooming on his face when the faceplate lifted up, revealing a haggard, tired, yet smiling Tony.

“Hey handsome, need a lift?” Holstering his gun, he easily wrapped his free arm around the armor’s shoulders just as another wave turned down the ends of the street. Having an arm wrapped around the armor, feeling the hard metal against him as proof of Tony still being alive and mostly well, relaxed some of the worry and anxiety he had felt building in the back of his mind. “All the time, Shellhead.” 

Thankfully it was a short flight to the bar, Tony easily maneuvering them through the largest hole in the roof to the room below. The reason the team had chosen it as their base, after all, was that it was both one of the more intact buildings left with four walls, making it also one of the most defensible.

Which was good, seeing as they were about to be surrounded on all sides.

Shaking off the thought, he let go as Tony touched down in the middle of the overturned bar room. Before Tony could fly off again, Steve gently grabbed his wrist, turning his coms to mute, and pulling him into a hard yet gentle kiss, pouring all of his worries and love into it. And as always, Tony froze as if surprised before melting into it, kissing back sweetly enough that made Steve absently wish they weren’t in the middle of an apocalyptic war-zone, pulling back reluctantly and feeling warmth bloom in his chest at his flushed, smiling face.

“No distractions on the battlefield, Captain,” Tony said playfully, eyes full of affection that Steve undoubtedly knew matched his own. Unable to resist giving him another peck, Steve gave him his best smirk when he whined at not being given more. 

“Come back alright and you might get more,” he said with matching affection, warm and a bit hungry, but with all the seriousness Captain America had; Tony _had_ to come back, there was no other option.

Tony softened, understanding him without words as he always did, and gave him one last smile before the faceplate fell and he took off. Steve stared after him for a second before getting his head back into gear. Later. They always had later.

“Team, update.” he commanded, easily falling back into the role of Captain America. And the Captain was not happy that Iron Man was the only one accounted for.

“The horde of undead appears to have no end,” Thor harshly said in between grunts, presumably from using his hammer to take out the zombies. The Hulk roared in kind. They both sounded winded, tiredness creeping into their voices, as they all were, not that there were many of them left...

“ _Fuck!_ ” Steve snapped out his thoughts, tensing even though logically he knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything from where he was. “Hawkeye? Report!” 

“Just-Just _hold on_ , Legalos, _I’m-_ ” Tony cut off, just as the thunderous rumbling of what Steve knew was the sound of a building falling cut through the air. A wounded growl cut through the coms, somehow heard over the loud roar of Steve’s heart, before the coms fell silent.

“Hawkeye? Hulk? Tony, _Report!_ ” He all but screamed, emotions roiling through him. If… If they were all caught in that, if _Tony fell-_

Before his mind could completely spiral, the com crackled alive. “Cap-Steve… Hulk and Hawkeye are down,” Tony’s voice, drenched in pain and guilt, came through. For all that he was guilty for it, Steve felt immensely thankful; he wouldn’t have been able to carry on if Tony hadn’t made it, a thought that just hurt even thinking of it. “Then there were three, huh?” The joke fell flat, but neither he nor Thor were going to point it out to him.

Steve just took a moment and breathed, closing his eyes.

Outside, the zombies were banging against the weak walls of the bar, their patchy jobs of holing up in the broken building not going to last against the horde much longer, not for the fact that Steve could pick up the distinct grunts of Berserkers closing in. 

Over the coms, Tony and Thor still fought on, though Steve knew they weren’t going to last much longer; he could tell that Thor was wounded, and Tony was only a baseline human, not made to stand against this constant assault. When they both reached their limits… Steve refused to think about that, heart constricting even imagining the outcome.

He knew they had lost.

Taking a deep breath, he pressed the button on the com that gave him command of everything. “Once more into the fray.”

Instantly the entire world seemed to freeze, with only the heavy breathing from Thor and Tony as proof of what was real and what wasn’t.

“Live and die this day, live and die this day.” The world dissolved, and Steve felt that familiar tug in the back of his mind. Not fighting it, he learned it was just easier if he didn’t, he blinked open his eyes that he didn’t remember closing to the smiling, tired faces of the others.

“Welcome back, Cap,” Hank said from over where the monitors were, giving him a small grin as he sat up from one of the many cots set in the Virtual Reality room.

“Well… at least I can say I outlasted both the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier this time,” Clint said, giving a proud smile even as he tried to duck a swat from Nat as Sam piped up about also out-surviving them.

Steve didn’t pay the usual ensuing squabbles or the others any attention; there would be time to talk later when they went over the training exercise. Instead, he honed right in on Tony, briefly giving a smiling Thor a glance before stopping in front of Tony’s cot. The genius blinked, looking up at him, before giving him a tired smile.

“We made it to the end, huh, Cap?” 

His voice, his smile, and… 

He leaned down, feeling something in him settle when Tony met him halfway for a sweet kiss, the warmth and taste of it more than anything proving to him that they were no longer in that virtual world. 

For all of Tony’s, Bruce’s, and Hank’s genius, they could never quite manage to get it right for how _real_ something as simple as a kiss from his boyfriend was, and Steve savored every bit of it, savored the raucous his team made as they joked around about their ‘high-scores’, all well and alive.

“Since I made it, can I get that ‘more’ I was promised, now?” Tony spoke teasingly against his lips, and Steve drank in the depth of shining eyes and precious eyelashes as he stared down at him. Smiling, he leaned against his forehead, purposefully ignoring the groans of ‘Stevie, too much PDA’.

“Whatever you want, Shellhead.” _As long as you keep coming back,_ Steve didn’t say it in favor of kissing his boyfriend some more. Worrying thoughts like that could be handled later. For now, he was just content in knowing everyone was alive, and Tony warm in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Author (Ramblings) Notes:  
> \- Yes, the entire thing was a hyper realistic training program thing; everyone is 100% fine, even though they are a bit tired. :)  
> \- Originally I was going to have Tony 'die', but I figured that was too much for poor Cap to handle so I cut Steve some slack. (I never meant for the Big Three to be the last men standing, but I'm kind of happy it ended that way even if there's not a lot of Thor in this)  
> \- Regarding Steve's mental state and emotions: he Knew this was just a training program, this isn't the first time either, but if you've ever played on VR, it's Super Intense, and watching his friends die even though they're actually okay - they 'wake up' when they 'Game Over' - is Not Fun, which is why he had some contradicting thoughts/emotions. I just wanted it to be a bit more realistic? IDK if that translated well here, though.  
> ANYWAYS;
> 
> Thank you for reading! Hope this wasn't too bad for my first time writing something action-y? The ending is meh because I couldn't figure out how to end it, but I'm pretty happy with it over all.
> 
> Let me know if you have any questions? And hope you have a lovely day, and stay safe! <3


End file.
